Dynamic simulation of a novel "broomstick" human forward fall model and finite element analysis of the radius under the impact force during fall

Abstract

The paper presents dynamic simulation and experimental identification of a human forward fall model describing the process of "falling like a broomstick" on the outstretched arms. The model implemented in Mathematica allows one to estimate time histories of the ground reaction force in different scenarios of the fall process. These time series are applied as time-varying load conditions to the numerical analysis of the human radial bone model created from the computed tomography data. Finally, the obtained numerical results indicate that the strain criterion seems to be more useful for estimating the radius fracture site in comparison to the stress criterion.